The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Self-driving cars, and other robots, have many externally facing sensors to enable safe movement of vehicles among people and other cars. One challenge with having all of these sensors is keeping lenses and other sensor interfaces clean and clear. Mud from roads, bird droppings, a splash from a bus driving by, or fogging can suddenly block one or more sensors. Even an automatic cleaning regime may very likely obstruct a sensor, at least momentarily, and thereby possibly obstruct the sensor at a key point in time. Leaving a sensor partially soiled until stopping has issues, and simply stopping a self-driving car when a sensor is not operative may be necessary but is not desirable.
The high level of reliability required in self-driving cars requires that very few errors be made due to sensor soiling or obstruction.